Re-enactor Tracy W. Messer will portray President Calvin Coolidge preaching at Union Congregational Church, 33 Concord St., Sunday, July 16, at 9:30 a.m.
In 1891, 18-year-old Calvin Coolidge was taking classes at Saint Johnsbury Academy in Vermont to prepare for admission to Amherst College. On April 19, he attended a worship service at the North Congregational Church. The pulpit that Sunday was occupied by a visiting minister, the Rev. William Albert Sinclair. Born into slavery, he became an ordained minister and physician. Writing home to his father later that same day, the future president remarked, “I do not think I have ever heard a more perfect speaker.”
Messer, as Coolidge, will speak about the relationship between the two men. The public is welcome.